1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer apparatus for printing of a thermosensitive adhesive sheet (hereinafter “thermosensible adhering sheet”) formed with a thermosensitive adhesive layer showing a nonadhering property in normal time and manifesting an adhering property by being heated on one face of a sheet-like base member.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a label pasted on a commodity and used for a bar code, price indication or the like is frequently of a type having a pressure sensitive adhesive layer on a rear side of a record face (print face) and storing in a state of pasting an exfoliating sheet (separator) thereon to tackedly adhere thereto. However, the pasting label of this type needs to exfoliate the exfoliating sheet from the pressure sensitive adhesive layer when used as the label and therefore, there is a drawback of necessarily bringing about waste.
Hence, as a system for dispensing with the exfoliating sheet, there has been developed a thermosensible adhering label provided with a thermosensible adhesive layer showing a nonadhering property in normal time and manifesting an adhering property by being heated on a rear face side of a label-like base member and used for various uses. Further, there has also been promoted a development with regard to a thermally activating apparatus and a thermally activating method for heating a thermosensible adhesive layer of a thermosensible adhering label. For example, a thermally activating apparatus or the like utilizing a thermal head as heating means for thermally activating a thermosensible adhesive layer is disclosed in JP-A-11-79152.
FIG. 6 is a total view showing an outline constitution of a printer apparatus described in JP-11-79152. A thermal printer apparatus 100 of FIG. 6 is constituted by a roll containing unit 101 for holding a thermosensible adhering label L in a tape-like shape wound in a roll-like shape, a printing unit 110 for printing the thermosensible adhering label L, a cutter unit 120 for cutting the thermosensible adhering label L in a predetermined length, and a thermally activating unit 130 as a thermally activating apparatus for thermally activating a thermosensible adhesive layer of the thermosensible adhering label L.
Specifically, the printing unit 110 is provided with a thermal head 111 having a plurality of heat generating elements (resistance members) 113 arranged in width direction of the thermosensible adhering label L to be able to carry out dot printing, a printing platen roll 112 which is brought into pressure contact with the printing thermal head 111 and the like. Further, the cutter unit 120 is provided with a movable blade 121 operated by a drive source (not illustrated) of an electric motor or the like, a fixed blade 122 arranged to be opposed to the movable blade 121 and the like. Further, the thermally activating unit 130 is provided with a thermally activating thermal head 131 as heating means having a heat generating element 133, a thermally activating platen roll 132 as carrying means for carrying the thermosensible adhering label L and the like.
In the thermal printer apparatus 100, based on control signal transmitted from a CPU (not illustrated), respective processes are successively executed such that desired printing is executed at the printing unit 110, a cutting operation is executed by the cutter unit 120 at a predetermined timing and thermal activation is executed by the thermally activating unit 130 by applying predetermined energy.
Further, although as the thermally activating means of the thermosensible adhering label there have been proposed various methods such as a method of using hot wind or infrared ray, a method of using an electric heater or a dielectric coil and the like other than utilizing the above-described thermal head, all of the methods are the same in that the thermally activating unit is provided separately from the printing unit and the thermally activating processing of the thermosensible adhesive layer is carried out after printing the thermosensible adhering label.
Meanwhile, there has been proposed in JP-A-4-128121 a technology utilizing a heating roll as thermally activating means for a thermosensible adhering label although it is not directed to a thermally activating means of a printer apparatus for a thermosensible adhering label.
A label pasting apparatus disclosed in JP-A-4-128121 is an apparatus for thermally activating a thermosensible adhesive layer in a state of laminating a leaf member (postcard or the like) and the thermosensible adhering label by heating the thermosensible adhesive layer form a side opposed to a face of the thermosensible adhering label formed with the thermosensible adhesive layer by a heating roll to heat to bring the label into press contact with the leaf member. That is, the thermosensitive adhesive layer which is thermally activated by the heating roll is immediately brought into pressure contact with the leaf member when thermally activated and, therefore, heating control is comparatively easy.
However, when the heating roll is used as the thermally activating means of a printing apparatus for a thermosensible adhering label, there is a concern that when a thermosensible adhering label is heated at a face thereof on a side opposed to a side formed with the thermosensible adhesive layer, that is, a printable face thereof, the printable face develops a color and printing becomes unclear and there is a drawback that since the thermosensible adhesive layer is indirectly heated, the heating roll is obliged to heat at high temperature more than necessary and the efficiency is poor. Further, when the heating roll and the thermosensible adhesive layer are brought into direct contact with each other to thermally activate, there is a concern of adhering the thermosensible adhesive layer to the heating roll. From such reason, the heating roll is not generally used as the thermal activating means of the printer apparatus for the thermosensible adhering label.
Meanwhile, there is frequently a case in which a thermosensible adhering label is utilized for use for indicating price of a commodity or the like and, therefore, as the printer for printing the thermosensible adhering label, a printer apparatus excellent in portability is desired. However according to the conventional printer apparatus shown in JP-A-11-79152, the printing unit and the thermally activating unit are separately provided and, therefore, a space for installing these units is required which makes reduction in size of the printer apparatus difficult to achieve.